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Committees, Defined

Whenever I'm appointed to another committee, I'm tempted to ask what must I do to be impeached.

“ A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.” (Sir Barnett Cocks)

"If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee -- that will do them in." (Bradley's Bromide)

"If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock." (Arthur Goldberg)

"Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings." (George F. Will)

"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary." (Fred Allen)

"What is a committee?  A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary."  (Richard Harkness)

"Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. However, they are indispensable when you don't want to do anything." (John Kenneth Galbraith)

"The impulse to perfection cannot exist where the definition of perfection is the arbitrary decision of authority. That which is born in loneliness and from the heart cannot be defended against the judgment of a committee of sycophants. The volatile essences which make literature cannot survive the clichés of a long series of story conferences." (Raymond Chandler)

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